The GDC 2011 Summits, taking place on February 28th and March 1st at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, present a series of illuminating, focused sessions about the technology, design, business, marketing, and future of key game industry markets.

There are a total of seven notable standalone Summits, including Social&Online Games, AI, Indie, GDC Education, Serious Games, Localization and the GDC Smartphone Summit, joining multiple high-profile tutorials on the Monday and Tuesday of Game Developers Conference 2011.

As the final sessions get locked into place as part of the overall GDC

The talk will "touch on everything from development of features, mistakes made during the final stages of development, the launch of a game that Microsoft didn't believe in, why Steam is amazing, and the inevitable success of the best indie game of 2010."

- The newly added Social&Online Games Summit lecture 'Click Zen:

Zynga's Evolution from FarmVille to CityVille' sees Zynga exec and veteran game maker Mark Skaggs discussing "how <100 million unique user Facebook hit> CityVille represents a fundamental shift in how Zynga makes games, highlighted by the similarities and differences between CityVille and FarmVille."

The description explains: "Learn how Zynga changed its product development process in the 18 months between the two launches due to the rapid maturation of the industry, including new metrics processes and much more."

- Finally, in a GDC Smartphone Summit lecture 'Angry Birds - An Entertainment Franchise in the Making', Rovio's 'Head Eagle' Peter Vesterbacka will discuss how the Finnish developer made a signature franchise that "continues to be one of the most successful titles in the App store."

Other recently confirmed GDC Summit lectures include an Indie Games Summit microtalks session including appearances from Minecraft creator Markus 'Notch' Persson and Braid artist David Hellman, as well as an Artificial Intelligence Summit lecture looking at postmortems of AI-centric titles such as DarkSpore and The Sims 3: Medieval.

More information on the GDC 2011 Summits -- part of the UBM TechWeb Game Network, as is this website -- which can be attended via All-Access or Summit-specific GDC 2011 passes, is available on the GDC website - http://www.gdconf.com

Games Press is the leading online resource for games journalists. Used daily by magazines, newspapers, TV, radio, online media and retailers worldwide, it offers a vast, constantly updated archive of press releases and assets, and is the simplest and most cost-effective way for PR professionals to reach the widest possible audience. Registration for the site and the Games Press email digest is available, to the trade only, at www.gamespress.com.

Get the latest news sent to your inbox

Sign up to receive MCV's email news updates and access to other online products and services.

MCV is the leading trade news and community site for all professionals working within the UK and international video games market. It reaches everyone from store manager to CEO, covering the entire industry. MCV is published by NewBay Media, which specialises in entertainment, leisure and technology markets.